Cindy Sheehan Vs. Bill Kristol?

Yesterday (10/25) the hosts of Dayside, Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick interviewed Cindy Sheehan via phone to discuss the protest she is planning for when the military deaths caused by the Iraq war reach 2,000 (which sadly, they did yesterday). For a bit of "counter balance", the hosts decided to bring on Bill Kristol, and when he hit the air, Sheehan suddenly disappeared.

One of the first segments began with Huddy and Jerrick interviewing Sheehan:

MJ: Cindy, were you able to listen to the speech today?

CS: No, actually I wasn't.

MJ: Let me just play one quick bite from it then, it's about how the President says, now that we've got rid of Saddam Hussein, if we leave now, we'd probably just turn Iraq over to terrorists, which is basically what he said. (Showed clip of Bush). So what do you think? The president says if we leave now, the terrorists will take over, Cindy, what's your response to that?

CS: Well, I believe that, of course I believe that's false. There are studies that show most of the violence in Iraq are homegrown insurgency that are fighting against the occupation, and I believe that if we don't need our military presence there, we never did need our military presence there, Saddam was not responsible for 9/11, Osama is still free, it seems like they've forgotten that he was the one that planned the attack on American soil and he's still running free. They're devastating a country that was no threat to the United States of American and I believe that our military presence is not needed there, like it was never need there.

JH: Cindy, it's comments like those that have made you, like it or not a lighting rod for Americans here. We've got someone here in the audience that wants to ask you a question.

Audience Member: My question to you is, I was drafted in the army and served, I didn't want to go, but I went and I ended up fighting in combat in Korea. Your son volunteered. All of us thank God that he did. I think what you're doing is denigrating your son's service.

JH: Cindy, I know you've addressed this before, but you know, today once again you're going to be out there, and you said you're going to chain yourself to the White House fence, what do you think your son would have thought about this? I know members of your family have come out in opposition of what you're doing.

CS: Actually, um, my son did volunteer to join the United States Army. My son was an honorable man, he was a brave man, and he was misused and abused by his Commander-in-Chief by attacking a country that was no threat to the United States of America, and he and all of us would gladly defend our country , but Iraq was nothing about defending our country.

The conversation went on to discuss the details of her impending protest, in which she will lay in front of the White House. At this point, Jerrick decided to bring in Bill Kristol, and identified him as the editor of the "Weekly Standard". They did not mention, however, that Kristol is a neo-conservative and is one of the architects for going to war with Iraq in the first place, and that much of Bush's foreign policy is based on many of Kristol's ideas.

Kristol gave his opinion, and was cordial to the fact that Sheehan has a right to protest. After he made his initial statements the hosts decided to ask for questions from the audience. Jerrick clarified that Sheehan was still on the phone with the Control room and then stated that she was, and questions were open to both Kristol and Sheehan. The audience had a bit to say, one agreed that she has the right to protest and left it at that, while the other audience member stated: "She is getting a chance to do what she is doing, because we have freedom in this country, and her son fought and died for that freedom. And she wants to deny it to the people in Iraq, and she wants to overlook the freedom we enjoy every day in America."

Huddy then asked for Sheehan's response and said: "Cindy, do you want to respond to that? Oh, she is gone, sorry about that."

Comment: Sheehan was given the chance to say her piece, and Kristol was invited on to counter balance what she had to say. It was verified that Sheehan was still on the phone before opening questions to the audience (which we were unable to verify for ourselves, only Jerrick could hear the response in his ear piece), but once someone challenged her, Sheehan was suddenly gone and unable address the comments directed at her from the audience. While this may have been a technical difficulty, the audience was suddenly left with only Kristol, one of the architects of the war, to give his opinion of the Iraq war.

Clarification:

Yesterday (10/26) I posted this article discussing Cindy Sheehan's recent appearance on Dayside. Mrs. Sheehan felt that Newshounds was upset with her for hanging up and ending her interview when Bill Kristol was brought on to "counter balance" the segment. Unfortunately, at the time, I was unaware that it was Mrs. Sheehan that ended the interview on her own terms, which I applaud. At the time of posting, I was afraid that Fox had experienced "technical difficulties", and had not given Mrs. Sheehan a fair chance to respond to Kristol and the audience members, creating an unfair and unbalanced debate. I unfortunately did not clarify that point properly and apologize for any miscommunication I caused.

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